Stonewater Ranch wants to extend an invite to a new guest

Compacting Christianity, teens and adventure is the overarching goal of non-profit organization, Youth Dynamic's Washington program, Stonewater Ranch. Now, Ken Solem, founder of the Leavenworth location and program director, is working toward adding a new dimension to the experience by bringing Mustangs to the 158 acre camp. But to build an all Mustang herd, there are several hurdles for Stonewater Ranch to jump over. The youth ministry needs $30,000 to fund the Mustang adoption, maintenance and care expenses and Bureau of Land Management approved facility renovations, 

"Stonewater Ranch is Youth Dynamic's first ever camp facility," said Solem. There are Youth Dynamic programs in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. 

Stonewater Ranch is a sprawling property of land that multitasks hosting Northwest teens and serving as a home to horses. The ranch is geared towards youth and is adventure based with activities like rock climbing, backpacking, river rafting and of course, the horse program. It also has dual functions as a place for retreats, leadership training, and leadership conferences. 

"Everything we do is about our faith around here," said Solem. "Horses are a great indicator of people and personalities so horses help students break down the barriers."

The mission to add Mustangs as a new attribute stemmed from a newspaper article Solem read seven years ago. Solem was inspired by the story featuring the Washington border control using Mustangs to patrol the Canadian border. The article went on to express the loyalty in the breed and that the Mustangs were trained by inmates from a Colorado prison. 

"I thought that's kind of a cool idea - an all Mustang string," said Solem. "So I thought about it back then, but I didn't have the bandwidth or the capacity to do something like that." 

However, with the arrival of horse trainer, Dorothea Coomer, two and a half years ago, it allowed the program to revive the idea of the Mustang addition. To strengthen the adventure camp, Solem decided to incorporate Mustangs to foster a relationship where both the teens and the horses can positively grow and learn. The goal is to replace the current, aging horses at the camp with, eventually, a full Mustang string. 

"It's a unique opportunity to get the word out about the American Mustang and they're just phenomenal horses actually. And so the idea is to use local students in a kind of mentoring and discipleship program. They're going to be training and working with the Mustangs," said Solem. 

The Wild Hearts program will allow students to harness in any intimidation or unease with Mustangs and also serve an underlying spiritual theme as well. Along with the satisfaction of unwavering loyalty shared with the horse being trained, Coomer explained that training Mustangs also gives young teens a sense of responsibility and purpose that is unique. It provides a gateway to the students' growth into becoming leaders and contributing members of the community. 

"In my involvement with horses and my involvement with 4-H and mentoring younger horse people, I see that the benefits are really endless. I'm excited to bring that to Stonewater and to hopefully become known as a place that teenagers are really benefitting from and making a difference locally and then regionally as well," said Coomer. 

The mission of the ranch is to align religion and youth in a way that encompasses a powerful experience that propels the teens to use the camp to build on a foundation with their personal faith. Horses provide a mirror for the teens to reflect on their own relationship with God. 

"Within the horses, I see a ton of parallels with how God relates to me through my faith and Christianity and how I as a trainer relate to horses," said Coomer. "Once you have that relationship established, then it's about bringing that horse into being the best they can be and what they're created to be; and, that's what God wants for us. Underneath it all, that care and love the  girls have for their horses is such a picture of how God is with us."

And not only will the new addition benefit the two legged campers, but also the four legged guests as well. There is an overpopulation of Mustangs on rangeland that affects the environment and other species that live on the range. 

"In America today we have way more Mustangs than the rangeland can support in a healthy manner," said Coomer. "It's at least three times what the rangeland should be supporting."

The project will offer more Mustangs the opportunity to private care along with simultaneously improving the Mustang's quality of life and rangeland health. Stonewater Ranch will give the energetic, loyal, long-legged breed a purpose beyond eating for survival in a corral. Using Mustangs also helps dilute the intimidation of the breed's stigma of being wild and often cast as an unpredictable group of horses. Solem said that many people are afraid of Mustangs and stressed that they just need something to do outside of being contained inside in pens. 

"Our goal is to show that they (Mustangs) can be used for things like a youth trail camp. That's something most people don't think of when they think Mustangs," said Coomer. "That will help show, especially in the Northwest, that these horses are useable cause there's a huge rift between people who want to save the Mustangs and people that see them as a menace or taking away rangeland that we could be using for resources like cattle." 

However, the project requires a large sum to complete all the needed elements. The to-do list to accommodate the Mustangs include building a certain kind of fencing, adding to the stall capacity, re-configuring the round pen and training facility. The Stonewater Ranch Mustangs will be fueled all by donations. As the busy summer season finishes up, the camp can begin focusing its attention on promoting the fundraiser for the project. Both Solem and Coomer would like to have it underway by fall, particularly October or November. In five years they hope to have an all Mustang string for the camp.